Toon Takeaways from a New Year’s Day disaster for Newcastle

For the third time this season, Newcastle United were defeated by Leicester City.

Newcastle United lost their third straight Premier League match as they were comfortably handled by Leicester City on New Year’s Day. Former Newcastle United forward Ayoze Perez scored the first and assisted on James Maddison’s goal in the 3-0 defeat for Steve Bruce’s side. Hamza Choudhury provided the final tally as Newcastle finished with ten men due to injury.

Florian Flops

I mentioned last week that I thought Newcastle United needed to give Florian Lejeune a break because of the congested schedule and his long injury layoff beforehand. But, Steve Bruce continued to trot him out and today, he was terrible. He made a lazy, unnecessary pass across the pitch on the backline, which was intercepted and converted by former Magpie Ayoze Perez. Then, he had a poor clearance that ended in a goal for James Maddison.  Hindsight is 20/20, but he needed at least one of the matches over this festive fixture stretch off and his poor play cost NUFC dearly today. In our keys to avoiding another defeat vs. Leicester, we had the top key as playing simple and mistake-free at the back. Narrator voice: Lejeune didn’t play simple or mistake-free.

The Magpies MASH Unit

The phrase “adding insult to injury” hit too close to home for Newcastle United. But, it was actually adding injury to insult as Newcastle United saw four players need to exit the match vs. Leicester with injuries. Steve Bruce needed to utilize all three substitutions at his disposal before the second-half whistle blew. Jetro Willems, Javier Manquillo, and Jonjo Shelvey all needed to be replaced and all three have been in quality form as well. Then, in the second half, Fabian Schar clearly suffers a pull or tweak of his hamstring, but because there are no substitutions left, he tries to power through it and eventually does need to go off. I understand not wanting to play down a man for almost the entire second half, but the risk of worsening the injury to try and salvage something from a match you’re going to lose already was not worth it.

Dubravka Doing What He Can

The Newcastle United goalkeeper continues to be one of the few players that can almost always be relied upon. He made a couple of big early saves and was left little chance to stop either goal in the first half. When he’s needed, he answers the call for the Magpies more times than not. In the second half, he made two huge saves in quick succession to keep things 2-0.

Quick Kicks

• It’s usually the ones close to you that hurt you the most. Well, Ayoze Perez certainly did some damage vs. his former side today. A goal and an assist in the first half and that fingers in the ears celebration is not as fun or cool when it’s against the Magpies.
• Speaking of hurting Newcastle, Joelinton has specialized in that this season. He had a perfect chance when it was still early to put the home side up on the break, but he scuffed the chance. He mishit another quality look later on. It’s obvious he needs confidence, but to get confidence, he needs to play well…
• We will touch on this in another article, but I don’t want to see any crucial players in action for the FA Cup fixture. It’s not an important match in the grand scheme of things this season and the club’s depth is non-existent right now due to injuries.
• Major tip of the cap needed to Miguel Almiron’s effort. Despite playing down a man and trailing for most of the match, he continued to try and make things happen with his pace and dribbling. You can never question his heart.
• At least the club didn’t concede another goal after going down a man? A verrrrrry slim silver lining, that’s for sure.

Okay, What’s Next?

After their third straight defeat in the Premier League, Newcastle United will play in the third round of the FA Cup vs. Rochdale on Saturday. They will travel to face the League One side.